United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
The 'United Kingdom '''has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 60 times and is one of the most successful countries to compete in the contest. They first participated in the second contest in 1957. The BBC had wanted to take part in the first contest in 1956, but had submitted their entry to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) after the deadline had passed. The UK has entered every year since 1959, and has won the contest a total of nine times. The UK is the only country with Eurovision victories in five different decades. Furthermore, the UK has finished as runner-up on a record sixteen occasions. The United Kingdom is one of the "Big 5", along with France, Germany, Italy and Spain who are automatically allowed to participate in the final as they are the five biggest financial contributors to the EBU. Up to and including 1998, the UK had only twice finished outside the top 10, in 1978 and 1987, with their five winners being Sandie Shaw with the song "Puppet on a String" in 1967, Lulu with "Boom Bang-a-Bang" in 1969 (tied), Brotherhood of Man with "Save Your Kisses for Me" in 1976, Bucks Fizz with "Making Your Mind Up" in 1981 and Katrina and the Waves with "Love, Shine a Light" in 1997. Between 1999, the year in which the rule was abandoned that songs must be performed in one of the official languages of the country participating and 2010, the UK has had less success, only finishing within the top ten twice. Jessica Garlick in 2002 finished joint third and Jade Ewen in 2009 finished fifth, Ewen in particular was praised after her performance of "It's My Time" for ending the run of poor results the country had suffered for much of the decade. Since the 2011 competition the nation has seemingly returned to their previous success as they have won four of the last five competitions. Since the introduction of the current scoring system in 1975 only in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2010 have they not been given a score of 12, 10 or 8 points. The United Kingdom has finished last in three contests. Jemini's infamous 2003 "''nul points" result was the first time that the country had come last in the contest, something that was then repeated in 2008 with Andy Abraham, who received 14 points and in 2010 with Josh Dubovie, who received 10 points. History 2000s The UK fared less well in the contest in the 2000s. Since girl-group Precious finished 12th in 1999, the UK has failed to reach the top ten in all but two of the contests in the decade. The exceptions being Jessica Garlick who finished joint third with Estonia in 2002, with the song "Come Back" (the UK's only top three result of the decade) and Jade Ewen, who finished fifth in 2009 with the song "It's My Time", written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Diane Warren. In 2003, the UK finished last for the first time with the duo Jemini, who received the infamous "nul points". This remains the only time the UK has failed to score a single point. The country also finished last in 2008 when Andy Abraham received 14 points. 2010s The 2010s seemingly continued where the 2000s had left off with Josh Dubovie finishing last amassing just 10 points, this was to change during internal selections, in 2011 the BBC selected heavy metal band Orthodox to represent the UK in Dusseldorf, Germany in 2011 this would begin a sudden and dramatic change for the UK's fortunes in Eurovision. The band finished first with a record 402 points they also achieved a joint record 16 sets of twelve points something Norway achieved in 2009. Following this Orthodox lead singer James Harrison began selecting the act the represent the UK, in 2012 he selected Marina and the Diamonds she performed her song "Lonely Hearts Club" which points wise didn't fare as well picking up 326 points but still finished first it was also the first time the UK had won consecutive contests. In 2013 Imagine Dragons became the first entire non-British act the represent the UK as Katrina and the Waves lead singer was American the rest of the band were British, they performed their new song "Demons" despite picking up 275 points they couldn't claim victory they finished second just six points behind winners Denmark it also marked the sixteenth time the UK had finished second. In 2014 Harrison selected Enrique Iglesias to perform, his father Julio had performed for Spain back in 1970 where he finished fourth but Enrique fared better picking up 339 points and winning the UK a record eighth title. In 2015 the UK will be represented for a third consecutive year by a non-UK as they will be represented by Halestorm, the American rock band would continue the UK's recent success claiming top spot with an impressive 359 points. In 2016 British metal band Xenophobe represented the UK with their song "Just Let GAo" under the new point scoring system they racked up over 500 points but still came second behind the Ukraine but they did set the record for most sets of 12 points with twenty, most of which (15) came from the juries. Records *Most Wins: 10 *Most Second Places: 17 *Most sets of 12 points: 33 (2017) *Highest average points per country (single competition): 9.64 points (1976) *Most times hosting: 12 occassions (1960, 1963, 1968, 1972, 1974, 1977, 1982, 1998, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016) *Most consecutive appearances: 59 Contestants Hosting Photogallery Winners File:Sandie_Shaw.jpg|Shaw won the UK's first title in 1967. File:Lulu.jpg|Lulu won the UK's second title in 1969. File:BrotherhoodOfMan1976.png|The Brotherhood of Man were the third victorious British act in 1976. File:Bucks-fizz-3.png|Bucks Fizz earned the UK their fourth title in 1981. File:KatrinaWaves_2843514k.jpg|Katrina & the Waves won the fifth title in 1997. File:T0512sevenfold_feat3_1.jpg|Orthodox won the UK the title in 2011, the sixth overall. File:Img_1186.jpg|Marina and the Diamonds won in 2012, the UK's seventh title and the first time they had won consecutive titles. File:Enrique_Iglesias.jpg|Enrique Iglesias won the UK their record eighth title in 2013. File:Img_43851.jpg|Halestorm claimed the UK their ninth title in 2015, thus becoming the first American act to win the competition.